Season's Changing

Summer is officially done here. I've given up hope of seeing any more blissfully warm days. If we break 20 again I'll be surprised (take a breath my American friends, I'm talking Celsius - we're not that cold up here ;). And while the boys can get away with wearing shorts in these last few afternoons getting up to the high teens (as long as they stay in the sun, lol), it's really not warm enough. It's over. We hit -2 night before last... and there's no turning back once you've had that first frost or hit that first negative temperature.

Don't get me wrong, I really don't mind fall.... the cool crisp morning air and the comfortable afternoons.... the cold nights finally chasing the mosquitoes away so we can enjoy some last evening outdoors. Harvest and Thanksgiving and all things Autumn. The trees along the river on my drive to work are beautiful - it's a great time of year, really.

It's just hard to appreciate it because my mind keeps fast-forwarding... the unmistakable signs of fall mean winter is just around the corner.

My girl likes to play outside every day when we get home. We swing and slide and build castles in the sandbox - she especially loves playing in the sandbox. It's already getting cool by that time of day.... and I can't help thinking of how disappointed she'll be, one day soon, when the sandbox is frozen and our yard is blanketed with snow. I'm sure she doesn't even remember snow.

We've got hockey every weekend already... and it's just a countdown over the next two months until the outdoor ice can be ready enough for practices. Out Door Ice. As in real cold, all the time, enough for ice to stay frozen. Within the next two months.

I shouldn't be shocked, it's just that I'm not ready. I feel like we barely had a summer.

The kids already have their Halloween costumes, and we have snow on the ground for Halloween as often as not... can't kid myself anymore.

Might as well embrace it. Hopefully my husband will reinstate the ice slide in our back yard after last year's hiatus... my girl would love that - and we can keep some of those sand toys out for building snow castles instead!